Loworks is a design company based in Japan. I’ve been on a wacky illustration kick recently, and it’s always fun to see what Loworks is up to. Their old site is one of my all time favorite website designs. It may not be the best design from an accessibility standpoint, but you can’t beat the creativity and absolute craziness at work. I wish it was still active, always made me happy. Computer Arts did a small feature on Loworks if you are interested.

Excuse the abstract image but i’ve already posted about this album in March which featured Cheerleader so I thought something a little different might be a good change of pace because every blog has been writing about this Brooklyn band. I still haven’t dove into this album completely because of DEMF but if I heard Ready, Able I wouldn’t of posted Cheerleader or Two Weeks. Ready, Able has a slow waltz and Eddie sounds abit like Benoit Pioulard to me, you see now that’s a duet I wanna hear in 2009.

One of the best voices i’ve heard live since i’ve moved to Brooklyn is a no brainer, 24 year old, Danish, Greek and Indonesian Jannis Noya Makrigiannis gave me goosebumps. He stayed at my place for about a week, one of the nicest guys, dressed like a southern European Italian Vogue farmer and right off the bat you could tell the guy had a kind heart and when he performed he looked like he was made to perform music and sing.

Nothing wrong with just throwing in a random Sonic Youth song to ground us.

Okay so i’ve become a Dubstep junkie, don’t tell anyone. I’ve looked high and low for the most energetic yet slow moving and heavy hitting tracks. I really think this might take over the US finally in 2010. This Joker cut has elements of a Top 40 rap anthem but its soo chunky, 8 bit, and twisted, i’m sure my neighbors love it too.

Just got back from Toronto today, thanks to everyone who made it out last night, I had a lot of fun playing the Drake. While waiting at the airport I caught this great clip via Create Digital Motion. “As visualists, the sad truth is we have a poorer sense of the history of our medium than musicians. Part of this is simply a lack of access. YouTube is a weak substitute, but it’s a start.” Very true, it’s sad to think how many great works in video (and design for that matter) have been lost to time and obscurity. Hopefully more work like Matrix III slowly make their way into the digital domain. Via Create Digital Motion

As you can tell i’m a huge fan of Bibio and his new direction isn’t too surprising but definitely a noticeable difference, it’s less lo-fi and sounds like he added some dubstep kicks to makes the whole overall sound more round. A 7 inch vinyl single will be coming out on Warp on June 8th with this song will drop before the LP, I look forward to hearing the B side and all the other songs, should be a great surprise.

Type Records grabbed up the distant serenading City Center and this new LP is full of echoed vocals and gentle guitar strumming, such good atmosphere and timing in all his music, it really helps me to relax.

Deastro is giving away a free EP called Grower, its all instrumental and almost sounds like he woke up in the middle of the night and had an amazing brainstorm for an EP and knocked it out in hours by finessing very similar sounds. Its an epic masterpiece at times and its super kind of him to just give it away for free like that.

Lindstrøm & Prins Thomas are back at it again, first off they make me feel like I should never touch a synthesizer because really they make it sound soo easy. This track takes me on this journey like i’m riding into space on an all silk loosely put together yacht and I have an epic plan and a long to do list of how to save the universe but i’ll doing it at 15 MPH and not worrying about how and when I do it though. Within a minute of just listening you might end up starring at your computer and just thinking who are these guys and how do we make sure they never stop making new music.

It’s been a lot busier trip than I an anticipated so I just got around to picking the winners in the 1000th post giveaway. First off I just want to say thanks for all the kind words, the response was overwhelming and it’s nice to know you’re all enjoying the blog. Now on to the big winners:

With Detroit Electronic Music Festival over I needed to find a mix that summed how good it got at times and this recent Resident Advisor mix does a great job and I think some of you Tim and Eric fan might like the tracklist towards the end.
Seth Troxler has been the face of the new generation of DJs coming out the US that gets it because he has the depth when it comes to knowing new and old records, has the confidence to throw out that curve ball track to a full dance floor, and lives the lifestyle that many of us would just stare at and be floored that he can live thru it all by being able to DJ at 6pm or 5am or even noon the next day.

So we’re finally in Toronto for the final Ghostly show tomorrow. The Drake Hotel has put us up in the Artist Apartments next door which actually have internet, which has been a rare commodity on this trip. Sam and I were sitting here looking through his favorite saved images and he pulled up the Peter Saville designed New Order poster above. So nice, I looked it up and found this other FAC88 poster — reminds me a lot of this. The top one is all you Alex.

We drove from Detroit to Ann Arbor (Ghostly’s home town) last night to sleep off the head trauma suffered at DEMF and get ready for the train ride to Toronto today. Can’t wait to play the Drake again, such a great venue, the three big screens really add to the visual side of things. Congrats to the ticket giveaway winners, check your inboxes, I just sent the confirmations. I also just got the set times for tomorrow night’s show, see you in Toronto!